The Vatican’s Confused Statement on the Marketplace

This past monday, the Vatican’s Justice and Peace Department issued a statement condemning “idolatry of the market” and calling for a new world economic authority to manage crises in a more “fair” manner.

To me, it seems ironic to me that they would criticize “neo-liberal thinking” of trying to implement “technical solutions” to economic problems, then essentially propose a new central bank. I can’t think of anything more “technical” than forming a new state apparatus that has monopoly power over money itself. If anything, the statement shows a profound confusion about the nature of economic problems in the world and what must be done to solve them.

Tom Woods has been very busy these past few days writing response articles to this statement, and they are worth reading (especially if you’re not particularly familiar with the internals of the Catholic Church). Here are the links:

Idolatry of the Market at LewRockwell.com

Truth and Charity at Taki’s Magazine

Don’t Mix the Ecclesiastical with the Economical at NPR